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Data Analytics: Who’s in Charge?

How should analytics be structured within an organization? Should it be centralized or diffused? Who, ultimately, should “own” it? Findings from The Analytics Advantage, Deloitte’s first annual survey on the state of analytics readiness at leading corporations, reveal wide variations in analytics oversight, with the most common analytics champion being a business unit or division head (23%). Five C-suite categories (CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO, Chief Analytics Officer plus “other”) combine to account for 56% of those responsible for analytics. Notably, no respondents cited the COO as having ultimate analytics responsibility.

Financial operations have long been data-driven, but the availability of big data and the growth of data analytics capabilities have further heightened its importance. These are no doubt the reasons that the area most often found to invest in analytics, at 79%, is finance. Also, about 18% of corporations surveyed report that the CFO is the individual within the organization primarily responsible for analytics, making the CFO the third most common analytics overseer. The most frequent leader of analytics—named by 23% of respondents—is the “business unit or division head,” who also typically has significant budgetary responsibility.

Additionally, another 20% of respondents surveyed were unable to identify one single executive with that responsibility in their organizations. This suggests some businesses may be experiencing an ongoing analytics ownership power struggle as executives become more cognizant of the potential benefits and complexities of a robust analytics capability within their enterprises.

More than half of the 100 survey respondents were C-suite executives (33%) or heads of business units or divisions (22%), which may point to the growing importance of analytics at the highest levels of the enterprise.

Source: The Analytics Advantage, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

Given that modern-era analytics and big data are still relatively new on the corporate agenda, it is somewhat surprising that 42% of survey respondents report some level of centralization of analytics within their organization. The remaining 58% of organizations either have uncoordinated pockets of analytical activity (20%) or geography- or business unit-based analytical capabilities that are in early phases of collaboration as they begin to share tools, data, talent and leading practices with colleagues.

Moreover, there is ongoing debate among some respondents about whether analytics should be a more centralized function or one that is embedded within various corporate work streams and geographies. The opinions are as varied as the companies and industries involved. As one leader described it, moving from a decentralized to a more centralized approach to analytics—which is in the early stages at her organization—is desirable. “I would prefer to go to a centralized team, because it decreases the likelihood of confusion within the organization,” she explained. “Otherwise, you have two or more departments investing and building their own support models. That can create riffs and gray areas that none of the analytics groups can support or overcome.”

Conversely, some interviewees were adamant that decentralization of analytics capabilities is more effective, with one indicating that “by serving individual leaders, we are more embedded in the business and better able to serve their needs.”

The “centralize versus decentralize” debate will likely continue as organizations grapple with the volume, velocity and variety of data at their disposal, the resources required to make sense of this data, and the effects data-driven projects have on revenue, expenses, market share and reputation.

Source: The Analytics Advantage, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

Other Findings

Analytics as a competitive resource—Analytics is already an important competitive resource for many companies, with fewer than 20% of respondents stating that analytics does not yet support their corporate strategies.

Growing importance of analytics—96% of respondents feel that analytics will become more important to their organizations in the next three years. Two reasons there is plenty of room to grow: a great deal of data is still not used for decision-making; and many organizations have only rudimentary analytical technology.

Better decision-making—Nearly half of respondents (49%) assert that the greatest benefit of using analytics is that it is a key factor in better decision-making capabilities. Another 16% believe that its greatest benefit is better enabling key strategic initiatives. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say that analytics play an important role in driving business strategy.

Marketing and customers—Surprisingly, only 1% of respondents believe that the greatest benefit of using data analytics is identifying and creating new product and service revenue streams, demonstrating its impact on product and service innovation is not yet nearly as noteworthy as in other areas. But its marketing influence is rising, as 55% of respondents said their marketing and sales groups invest in analytics second only to finance operations.

Structure is a challenge—Analytics is managed by a variety of executive roles within companies, and a wide range of functions benefit from analytics. More structure around coordination and alignment is needed to realize the impact and benefits of a company’s data throughout the organization.

Key barriers to overcome—Organizations will be slow to fully capitalize on the potential of analytics unless they are able to overcome several key barriers, of which data management and access to talent are the most problematic.

About the Survey

The survey was commissioned by Deloitte to better understand the state of analytics readiness at leading corporations today—and what the future may hold. It was conducted using a mix of online questionnaires to which 100 individuals representing companies in financial services, technology, communications, entertainment, health care, consumer products/retail and other sectors responded and “deep dive” interviews with senior executives at 35 companies in North America, China and the United Kingdom. Interviews were overseen or conducted by analytics thought leader and author Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College and director of research at the International Institute for Analytics, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard Business School.

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